March17, 2009

Washington, DC – House Armed Services Committee
Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) delivered the following remarks
in the U.S. House of Representatives today concerning the
security challenges arising from the global financial
crisis:

“Mr. Speaker, students of history know that
hyper inflation in Germany was a significant factor in the
rise of Hitler. The economic decay of the Soviet Union
led to regime change across Eastern Europe. And a
serious economic crisis preceded the French Revolution.
So the record is clear that economic crises can have
consequences for national security of the highest
order. Here in the United States, our economic strength
has always been the foundation for our national power and our
national security. Economics plays no less important a
role in the fate of many other nations.

“Knowing this, the House Armed Services
Committee decided to explore how the current global financial
crisis is affecting national security by holding a hearing
last week with a distinguished panel of economic and national
security experts. We had been working to hold such a
hearing since November, but the urgency of this effort was
only emphasized when the Director of National Intelligence,
Admiral Dennis Blair, stated in this annual threat assessment
that the global financial crisis represents the primary
near-term concern for U.S. national security. During
our hearing, we learned more about the many ways the world
has been thrown into serious turmoil by this sudden global
shock, and that many if not most of the international
consequences are yet to come.

“We learned that at a minimum, the global
financial crisis will exacerbate an already growing set of
political and economic challenges facing the world. In
country after country, the crisis is increasing citizen
discontent and anger toward their leaders and providing an
excuse for authoritarian regimes to consolidate their
power. It distracts and strains our allies and
generates conditions that could provide fodder for
terrorism. Financial turmoil can loosen the fragile
hold that many countries have on law and order and increase
the number and size of ungoverned spaces.

“While most of the experts we heard from
agreed that the strongest economies will weather this storm,
it is the fragile states that worry me the most.
Emerging democracies throughout Eastern and Central Europe,
Africa, and Asia will turn to the Western world for
support. If we cannot or do not help them, they may be
forced into economic alliances of necessity with
long–term consequences. When Iceland recently
turned without success to its friends in the West, it found a
'new friend' in Russia. Jamaica has received
significant financial assistance from China. The list
of countries in critical regions in need of such assistance
is long indeed. Economic pressures within European
countries might even become so severe as to seriously weaken
or unravel the ties that bind the countries of the European
Union and the NATO Alliance together.

“Perhaps most serious, at a time when U.S.
leadership is sorely needed, our international credibility is
at an unprecedented low. The crisis is causing
emerging nations to question the Western model of market
capitalism. Flawed policies, poor decisions, weak
regulation, and questionable behavior have lead to a
widespread perception that American-style capitalism is
unsustainable. This perception may be the most
corrosive effect of the current crisis.

“Mr. Speaker, our response to the global
economic crisis must be far reaching and far seeing. We
must restore our economy, maintain and enhance our key
instruments of national power, including the Department of
Defense, and take an approach with the world that
reestablishes our credibility and claim to world
leadership. We must support our friends and maintain
our alliances. We must not become so self
absorbed that we fail to recognize our long term strategic
interests. And we must be very clear, in today’s
world a strong national defense is not a luxury, it is an
imperative.”